Let us show you how to make your eyes unforgettable by guiding you through the many assorted ways of how to put on eyeliner. Whether you need to present yourself professionally for a day at work or you want to look sensational for a night of partying, there is an eyeliner technique for every occasion.
There are so many looks you can create with the simple use of eyeliner. You can use any of the looks shown here as a guide for how to put eyeliner on in numerous ways. Be daring and try them all and discover which designs you love most.
When beginning to learn how to put eyeliner on, it is important to try an easy look and gradually build your skill to be able to master the more intense designs. For the daytime or for when you are working, try to stay with natural, soft, minimal makeup that enhances your own unique beauty and try not to apply your eyeliner too thickly. This will give you more of a professional appearance. At night or when you are not at work, you can turn up the volume with more vivid colours and thicker eyeliner. For a special event you can go all out and try something wild if you are up to the challenge. Eyeliner designs can be achieved using eye shadow powder, a kohl eyeliner pencil, gel or liquid eyeliner depending on how dramatic you want your eyes to look.
1. Eye Shadow as Liner
You can get the most value from your eye-shadow by using it in four ways. Your powder eye-shadow can be used dry or wet as regular eye-shadow, and dry or wet as eyeliner. For eyeliner, the first technique you can learn is to use dry powder eye-shadow. This can give your eyes a soft, romantic appearance. It is a good method to create smokey eyes. It is also a good process for how to put eyeliner on for a natural look and feel. You can use powder eye-shadow eyeliner during the day or at night. Experiment with different colours to create a new look every time.
- You will need a brush that is specially designed to apply powder eye-shadow as eyeliner.
- Gather a dark eye-shadow colour onto the brush. You can try a darker shade of the colour eye-shadow you are already wearing or go for a dark brown, grey or black eye-shadow.
- Once your brush is loaded, dab the powder onto your eyelid just above the eyelashes where you want it.
- You may need to repeat this process a few times to get the colour as dark as you would like.
- You can do this under your eye just below your eyelashes if you wish to have eyeliner there, too.
How to Apply Powder Eye shadow As Eyeliner
The second way in which you can use powder eye-shadow as an eyeliner is to wet the brush you are working with before adding the eye-shadow. This will make the powder eye-shadow darker and give you a more powerful look. Using eye-shadow as eyeliner gives you a multitude of colours you can use, depending on the colours of eye shadows you own. By using the “wet brush” method as well, you virtually double the amount of colours in your palette.
2. Pencil as Liner
Another method for lining your eyes is to use pencil eyeliner. You will find that pencil eyeliners give a more defined look than the softer powder eye-shadows. There are different ways of applying pencil eyeliner depending on the effect you wish to create.
One way to apply pencil eyeliner is to make sure you have a fairly sharp eyeliner pencil in whatever colour you choose. Try not to pull or stretch your eyelids when you apply the eyeliner. A good eyeliner will go on smoothly. If your pencil is dry and you are having difficulty applying the colour, then try sharpening your pencil to freshen the tip. If this doesn’t work then you might want to consider buying a new one so you don’t damage the area around your eye. You may even need to buy a different brand of eyeliner to find one that will work for you.
- The basic way to line your entire eye is to start with a thin line on the top lid from the outer edge of your eye just above your eyelash line and work towards the centre of your eye.
- You then take the pencil and again on your top lid, start at the inner point of your eye near your nose.
- Draw the line as close to your lash line as possible, towards the middle of your eye, to meet with the line you already have.
This is how to put the eyeliner over the top lid of your eye. Repeat this technique under your eye just below the lower lash line to completely surround your eye with liner.
Knowing how to apply your eyeliner pencil in this way, will give you the basic skills you need to create different effects. You can thicken any part of the eyeliner that you wish to draw attention to and make a bold statement. How to put eyeliner on to make your eyes look wider and farther apart is to apply the liner at the outer corner of your eyes only. If you wish to create the opposite look; i.e., how you would put eyeliner on for narrower closer looking eyes, is to apply liner only in the corners closest to your nose.
How to Put Eyeliner on to Make Your Eyes Look Larger?
To make eyes appear larger
Apply white eyeliner to the bottom inner waterline above your lash line, next to your eye and in the corner of your eye, by your nose.
This technique gives your eyes a wide open, larger appearance. Be careful when doing this. Make sure that you are not allergic to the makeup you are using, as it can irritate your eyes.
Different Kinds of Eyeliners
Eyeliners come in a range of colors, so don’t limit you to black. They also come with glitter or shimmer highlights. You can find self-sharpening eyeliners if you don’t want the kind you need to sharpen yourself.
If you own pencil eyeliner that you need to sharpen, do not use the same sharpener you use for ordinary writing pencils. Keep a separate sharpener for your eyeliners to prevent any possible contamination. Kohl eyeliners also come in a variety of widths for thinner or thicker lining depending on your preference.
3. Liquid Eyeliner
If you are looking to make a vivid statement with your eyes, then liquid eyeliner is just the item for you. This look will certainly make an impact and is perfect for any special evening engagement. There are a number of methods for how to put on liquid eyeliner. You need to be careful when applying this type of eyeliner as it dries very quickly. Liquid eyeliner comes in either a felt-tip format or with a brush.
In the photo tutorial above, the model is showing an easy technique to use for applying liquid eyeliner. However, please note that she is pulling on her lid and this is not a good or accurate way of how to put eyeliner on.
By pulling her skin she is changing the shape and narrowness of her eye and this is not giving her the correct balance she needs for the end result. As you can see in the middle, the liner looks correct when her lid is being pulled; because that is the shape she has pulled her eye into.
In the last photo, her eye shape has changed and her liner does not look as smooth or well proportioned for her eye because it wasn’t applied for that shape.
You want to keep your eyelids in their natural form when you apply any makeup, especially eyeliner. Good makeup can be applied properly over your natural skin without any need to manipulate it. The skin around the eye is the most delicate area on our face and is prone to wrinkle more than any other area. It is imperative to treat your eyes with the utmost care and safety. Needlessly pulling the delicate skin here will cause premature wrinkling.
One way to accomplish the application of liquid eyeliner quickly is to first line your eyes with a pencil of the same colour that matches your liquid eyeliner.
- Apply your pencil eyeliner as described earlier, making the final design you wish for in the liquid eyeliner.
- Once the pencil liner is complete, it depends on how you want your final results to look.
- Simply apply the liquid eyeliner directly over top the pencil lines.
- You use the pencil eyeliner as a guide for the liquid one.
This is how you put on liquid eyeliner with minimum errors.
To achieve a cat eye, Arabic or wine house look using liquid eyeliner takes time and practice. It is best to do it in steps.
- The first step is to draw a line from the outer corner of your eye to the height and length that you will want your liner to end.
- Next draw the line to complete the edges of the corner.
- Continue to draw the outer edge lines depending on the look you have chosen.
- Once all your guidelines are finished, all you need to do is fill it in with the liquid liner.
Again the choice is yours of how to put on this eyeliner and you can make it as thick or thin as you dare. The harder you press down the tip or brush can determine how thick your liner goes on.
You will find liquid eyeliners offer you a variety of colours to choose from. Once you have learned how to use this eyeliner. You can create expressive eyes using whatever colour matches your mood, your clothes or brings out your eye color.
4. Gel Eyeliner
How to apply gel eyeliner? It’s a tricky process and requires an eyeliner brush. That you carefully dip into the gel makeup and dab along the edge of your eyelash line. You can then continue to create the liner edges and fill it in a similar fashion as the liquid eyeliner. Please see above for further instructions.
Gel eyeliners are usually waterproof, which is good if you want your look to last for a length of time. However, it will require makeup remover once you are ready to clean it off because of its waterproof properties.
Different Brushes to use for Gel Eyeliner Application:
There are a variety of brushes you can use depending on how you want to apply gel eyeliner. Practice makes perfect, so try a variety of looks and brushes to find what you like best. If you wish for a smokey look to your gel eyeliner. You may want to try using a Q-tip or cotton bud to apply it. This way of applying the gel is less defined and a little smudgy in appearance.
With your imagination, there is no end to the variety of looks you can produce with eyeliner. The only thing limiting you is your own courage to try new designs. If you are in need of ideas. You can always find many eyeliner designs and videos online for you to follow.
